Pot: The Other White Meat

Hemp is native to Kentucky. It grows wild everywhere - farmers find it in fence rows all the time. For more than a century, it was Kentucky's biggest cash crop in its number one industry.

So no surprise its intoxicating cousin has become the income substitute of choice during hard times in Appalachia

Roger Alford of AP:

Appalachian states have seen an increase in marijuana production, and a federal drug official said Thursday that a sour economy may have turned some people in need of cash to the clandestine crop.

Ed Shemelya, head of marijuana eradication for the Office of National Drug Control Policy's efforts in Appalachia, said helicopter spotters and ground crews found and cut more than 1.1 million plants worth some $2 billion in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia during the 2011 growing season. That was an increase of more than 100,000 plants over 2010.

They confiscated 385,000 plants in Kentucky alone, and I call bullshit on the DEA's claim to have grabbed half the crop. A tenth maybe. Those roadless mountain forests hide a lot of pot.

Marijuana growers in Appalachia, Shemelya said, can be hard-core criminals or hard-luck entrepreneurs supplementing their income. Most of the crops that authorities find in the region are less than 100 plants, which can easily be tended by a single grower.

SNIP

Authorities say stricter border controls have made it more difficult to import pot from Mexico. They say that has pushed up demand for domestically grown marijuana at a time when law enforcement authorities are being pinched by budget cuts.

The day the DEA stops pretending hemp is pot, the pot crop in Kentucky will drop down to nothing, because hemp will instantly become a bigger cash crop than tobacco ever was.